


And Yet, the Force Survives

by dogmatix, norcumi



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Concept Fic, F/M, Flash Fic, GFY, Tumblr Prompt, What-If, a nod to Rogue One as well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 02:04:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9299309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogmatix/pseuds/dogmatix, https://archiveofourown.org/users/norcumi/pseuds/norcumi
Summary: The Battle of Yavin is a rout for the Rebellion, not a victory.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Norcumi was taking prompts on Tumblr, and an Anon gave the title "And Yet, the Force Survives."
> 
> It kind of got away from us. 
> 
> This plunnie is up for adoption, if anyone wants to actually write or explore it. We'd just appreciate a linkback because we'd really, really like to read this fic too. ^_^

The Battle of Yavin was a rout. Yavin, for that matter, is an asteroid field that only the foolish dare enter – an asteroid field, in a system full of them, because Tarkin is always up for making an example.

A decade after the destruction of Yavin IV, there are less than fifty habitable worlds still spinning. The planets that do survive are firmly, loudly Imperial – to be anything less is not worth the risk.

Refugees are everywhere, for all that countless lives are lost with each planet. Plagues and famine have swept Coruscant. Only the richest of the rich survive, skyscrapers towering above a sea of death and darkness as the lower levels rot and decay, too many bodies to dispose of even if anyone was willing to risk going down there.

The Emperor does adore his cold city of misery and fear, with its roots lodged deep in carrion and the corpses of his enemies.

The Battle of Yavin was a rout, but you must understand something _odd_ happened at its end. Luke Skywalker was one of the last pilots to try the suicidal run on the Death Star.

He did not listen to his imagination, the whispers of his dead mentor. He missed his shot, and the Death Star was not destroyed.

So Obi-Wan improvised. He spoke to Vader instead.

Darth Vader missed the shot, dodging blaster fire from a disreputable freighter.  Both the freighter and a handful of X-Wings escaped the Imperials that day, along with several transports that managed to be clever in their escape.

Three months after the sad remnants of the Rebellion collect on Hoth, Darth Vader comes to their facility.

Tarkin liked keeping Vader on a short leash, dragging him from one system to another, and leaving rubble in their wake. Even for a veteran of the Clone Wars, even for one who led the massacre of the Jedi Temple…it was too much. He had watched the destruction of entire systems, and when he’d dared to raise questions, the Emperor had ordered Tarkin to a very specific planet.

Several technicians shuddered as the Death Star found its target, imagining that they could hear screaming in their minds as Naboo became stardust.

When Vader comes to Hoth, he comes alone, in a single old TIE fighter. The Rebels are not gentle, but he has surrendered, and he is brought before their General. He goes down on one knee to Leia Organa. He stares her in the eyes, ignoring the blaster she has aimed at him, and tells her all he knows about the second Death Star, being built even now in the shadow of Endor.

There will never be peace in the galaxy under the Emperor, unless it is the peace of the grave. There is nothing left in the Empire for him to fight for. Let the last Queen of Alderaan have his life, or his death, he does not care which.

“Princess,” she corrects in a snarl.

For a moment, all that can be heard is Vader’s respirator. “You are much like your mother,” he finally says, and bows his head to her.

R2D2 is _ecstatic_ to have Vader (Anakin) back. R2 trundles up to him with a hesitant, hopeful beep. And Vader just. All he can do is stand there, and feel every one of his years and every one of the deaths he’s caused and he puts his hand on R2’s dome and…breathes. He can’t talk he can’t move and damn he knows crying is a horrible idea because he has no way to wipe his eyes it’s just going to get the inside of his helmet wet and fog up the lenses and –

There’s an intangible quality about himself that’s been ‘Vader’ for over two decades. He can’t pin down the exact hows or whys, but in this moment, there’s a part of him that’s ‘Anakin’ again. It’s not a large part, but he’s acknowledging his past, and finally acknowledging that he was stupid and _wrong_. Obi-Wan was never against him. Padmé never even thought of betraying him. Palpatine was never his friend.

And it _hurts._

He doesn’t think he can ever be a good person again, but he can at least give his reins to someone (Padmé’s daughter) he knows will use him well.

It takes a long time before he can begin to accept that he’s more than a tool.

(It’s over a year before Kenobi appears to the Skywalker family and admits what he told Vader, now one of the most terrifying, efficient members of the Rebellion.)

Vader works alongside Luke and Leia, Han and Chewbacca. Rebel outposts are scattered throughout asteroid belts and on lifeless moons, ready to pull up stakes at a second’s notice. The Skywalkers learn the ways of the Force, from Vader, the ghosts of Kenobi and Jinn, and the very real and very grumpy Yoda. They learn to work with the Force to bring life to planets that never had it.  Terraforming at such a scale would kill any one of them, but working together they can create havens for their people. 

All of them grieve for the fact that they cannot bring life back to planets that have been destroyed.

Time marches on.

Ben Organa is still a teenager when he hugs his parents goodbye and goes undercover with the Empire. Kylo Ren is not Palpatine’s right hand man – no being is ever that close to the Emperor – but he continues to rise in the Imperial ranks.

Refugee children find safety in the shadow of Vader, breathing in time with his respirator to fall asleep as he pretends he is absolutely not watching over them. It is a solace he never sought to have, and knows he does not deserve. Amongst the handful that are Force sensitive, Finn and Rey learn the ways of the Force from Vader and Luke (both take time to work with the local pilots, and Poe Dameron is one of their star pupils).

Yoda wanders through every now and again, dropping cryptic remarks and whacking everyone’s shins (in private he’s heartsore, and not entirely at peace with these ‘new Jedi' and their ways, but even he’s come around to the fact that the old Jedi did almost as much to destroy themselves as Palpatine had).

They live vulnerable lives, but there is always that slim thread of hope, and what are rebellions built on, if not hope?


End file.
